Suppositio and significatio in Ockham's Summa Logicae

Abstract

Significatio and suppositio are central notions in Ockham's semantics; the former is propriety of isolated terms, the later, of terms in propositional contexts. Understanding the relation between both notions is important to determine the atomistic or propositonal character of Ockham's semantics. The definition of each term refers to the other, not allowing any priority of one of them. Both terms exceed one another, covering cases which are outside the scope the other. We identify, through the analysis of this excess the dominant term for the explanation of different kinds of linguistic phenomena. These different kinds of phenomena are identified with two different conceptual fields, each term (suppositio and significatio) being dominant in one field.